Whats the One major issue hurting the WWE buyrates?

Rjd2

While business is ok for Vince these days (nowhere near as bad as some of the doom and gloom merchants reckon),, the one thing that they can't be happy with is the shrinking buyrates. They are still making money but after a terrible Mania buyrate the PPVs after it have bombed.

Some people have blamed the lack of star power such as HBK, Taker and Hunter not been involved, but I can't get on that bandwagon. Taker has been part time for a long time, while HBK has taken sabbaticals and PPV business has not suffered. Hunter may be a draw but even he and Steph wouldn't be so arrogant to claim that the slump was due to his absence. I admit the old lads not been part probably doesn't help but its not the main issue. So what is?

Do we blame UFC taking away business? Vince may claim they are not in direct competition, but the fact is some wrestling fans will choose to spend their hard earned money on a UFC ppv these days, especially in this horrid economy.

Streams don't help either but they have been around for a while and most of those who use them are adults/smarks who probably would not pay for the PPV if it was five dollars.

Booking is another issue that needs to be examined. Thee build up to the Fatal 4 Way PPV was disgraceful. However on the flip of that the Mania build up was very good and all the stars were present but it tanked.

Their is so many factors isn't their? So over to you folks!


Oh here is the recent buyrates stats..

http://www.pwinsider.com/article/49716/updated-wwe-buyrate-numbers-and-they-are-not-pretty.html?p=1

Gerard.C

UFC is attracting the older WWE audience, and the kiddies cant afford PPV's. Or their Parents wont buy them. Or their parents are buying UFC and telling the Childer to feck off.

Booking is an issue but it isnt as big an issue as it is made out to be, imo. They need a new, fresh, interesting star. Sheamus is a start, but I'd be suprised if he was the next Austin if ya get me

geeky

I think the lads at BTR worked out that, if they bought all the PPVs from WWE and TNA in a year, they'd be dropping $2-3k (not sure of the exact price) a year. That's a lot to part with in a tough economy.

Bounty Hunter

I dont know if there is one main reason but a lot of those youve suggested run into one another imo. For instance 1. WWE is now aimed at a PG audience who are less likely to be the ones paying for PPVs 2. The older audience may feel alienated by this and get put off the product 3. It may also lead to less compelling viewing in some peoples eyes and make the PPVs less of a much have 4. The PPVs are also on far more often these days and their themed gimmick doesent seem to be working 5. there is genuine competition from a source that Vince isnt trying to take on in MMA ready to mop up all disillusioned WWE fans 6. All the while the WWE is actually going through a rebuilding process at the moment and has lesser star power as it trys to build near potential stars....etc etc all the reason kinda roll into one imo and thats not even considering that the economy across the board has been down so buy rates are bound to drop.

krudler

The only ppv I'd even comtemplate paying for is Wrestlemania, maybe the Rumble if it was a given some big return would happen, the others, meh.

gimmick

Too many of trem and not enough decent build go hand in hand IMO, but I went with too many of them. Very hard to sell a fresh PPV when many of the matches will have happened a number of times already in the last few months.

jaykhunter

geeky wrote: »

I think the lads at BTR worked out that, if they bought all the PPVs from WWE and TNA in a year, they'd be dropping $2-3k (not sure of the exact price) a year. That's a lot to part with in a tough economy.

That can't be right.
12 x WWE PPVs : (Let's average it at $40) = $480
12 x TNA PPVs (Average $30) = $360

So even with adding a few more bucks here and there and another few PPVs, it'll hover around the $1,000 mark.

Anyway the main reason is that WWE don't have incredibly over fresh draws with must-see storylines/matches. WWE are paying for their complacency right now, and deservedly so. They've given us the same slop since WM21 and have pushed the bare minimum, the same faces and matches aren't interesting, so less people care.

They've burned out a lot of their feuds, having more than 12 PPVs/year over the last 8 years. That bit them in the ass. So now WWE have 'too much' air time (6 hours/week) and not enough made men. But since they've really tried hard pushing new stars recently; WWE --in 5 years-- looks to be really good. For now we're "stuck" with a bunch of mid-carders.

As Cena's character justly feels, what the point about being upset about losing a world title, you're just gonna get a rematch anyway. Unfortunately WWE's plan to counteract diminishing buyrates is to devalue the world titles. We're still in the trend of having a world title change hands on average once every month. (We're 8 months in to 2010 and 8 title changes)

Machismo Fan

TNA PPV's are $35 and WWE PPV's are $45 for SD and $55 for HD (I took the DirectTV prices) so you'd pay at least $960 for all WWE and TNA's PPV's which is just too expensive. So it's a combination of things, a lack of new stars and fresh matches, they're overpriced, there's too many of them, the economy is down - I don't think it can really be put down to any one thing.

CMpunked

Gerard.C wrote: »

Or their parents are buying UFC and telling the Childer to feck off.

That's a beautiful image :P

I think it's a case of nearly all of the above tbh

Vince135792003

WWE ppvs apart from Wrestlemania and maybe the Rumble don't feel special. Instead of trying to create drama between 2 people, WWE are putting on gimmick ppvs.

They feel like they don't matter so why bother paying money to see them?

The UFC have been hurting them for 5 years now. They make me care about their show in a way WWE used to.

Chael Sonnen with UFC giving him the opening has made himself a bigger star in 2 months than anyone in WWE and TNA have in the last 3 years (and to WWE's credit at least they are trying)

So why are less people buying WWE ppvs? There is a more compelling show in the UFC.

conacur

I think we all know what the cause is.........building your company around John Cena! God I miss the old days. I stopped watching it about the time Cena was picking up momentum.....about 2003, for ages all the old hardcore fans hated him & then they just kept pushing him at us so we switched off. Long live the Attitude Era....but will never happen again. We had our day & now we have UFC so I'm not complainin.

jaykhunter

ah you can't blame the economy, people have money they're willing to spend on PPVs if they feel it's worth the money (re: UFC). WWE just isn't worth as many people's money anymore. It really is a combination of everything.

I do think that UFC impact their buys as people (who are both WWE and UFC fans) have a limited entertainment budget and are likely to choose one or the other -- and it'll likely be UFC. But I don't know what that crossover market is.

Diabhal Beag

A mix of too many PPVs and the popularity of UFC. The fans have to choose between normally great UFC cards and hit and miss WWE shows.

I love wrestling but UFC is so much more exciting these days. The build up all the fights properly, something WWE have been poor at in recent years.

chordtype

I think all of the reasons really apply but I've voted for the UFC competition. For the last few years they have been on fire on PPV. Just look at their 2010 PPV buy rates.

108300,000
109 275,000
110 215,000
111 850,000
112 500,000
113 520,000
114 1,050,000
115 620,000
116 1,050,000 to 1,280,000

Compare these with WWE buy rates and it doesn't look good for them. The problem with presenting a PG product is that you are trying to attract a younger audience. A younger audience cannot pay 50 dollars every month for a PPV.

Whereas UFC has really cornered the old WWF market, who can afford PPV's and who are watching a product which is perceived as cool and hip and which people can watch in groups. Naturally they are gonna be striking up big buy rates.

Added to this that UFC has done a better job of promoting their fights and shows. Despite the fact that UFC does more shows than WWE they still get the buy rates that they do because they don't have the same guys every main eventing every week like WWE seems to have. The guys that were getting big PPV numbers for UFC in 2005 (Ortiz, Shamrock, Liddell, Couture) have moved over and a new generation of guys (GSP, Brock, Evans, Silva) are getting even bigger numbers now. In WWE it's been the same guys on top slowly getting less and less buy rates. The guys that have moved aside or left (Batista, HBK etc.) haven't been replaced by new guys. They need new stars and they need them fast. However, they also need to be aware that these new guys are not gonna be pulling big numbers straight away. They need years to achieve this.

flahavaj

WWE is aimed at a target market these days that no longer pays themselves for PPV's - kids. When they were aimed at young adult males who are in more of a position to pay for PPV's buyrates were astronomical. As other have said your woung adult male is now far more likely to be paying for a UFC PPV. Obviously thats very simplistic but its a big part of it I reckon.

i also think Vince isn't too pushed about PPV sales being down btw - his target market, kids, make up for the lack of buys by shifting massive amounts of merch. As long as he's making a packet he doesn't really care what the source of his income is.

waltersobchak

flahavaj wrote: »

WWE is aimed at a target market these days that no longer pays themselves for PPV's - kids. When they were aimed at young adult males who are in more of a position to pay for PPV's buyrates were astronomical. As other have said your woung adult male is now far more likely to be paying for a UFC PPV. Obviously thats very simplistic but its a big part of it I reckon.

i also think Vince isn't too pushed about PPV sales being down btw - his target market, kids, make up for the lack of buys by shifting massive amounts of merch. As long as he's making a packet he doesn't really care what the source of his income is.

Plus the fu*ker bumped up the PPV prices in the US..

D2D

2010 WWE PPV's buys so far

Royal Rumble - Main attraction/stip: the Rumble Match - 462,000 buys
Elimination Chamber - Main attraction/stip: 2 Chamber matches - 285,000 buys
WrestleMania 26 - Main attraction/stip: The biggest wrestling show of the year - 885,000 buys
Extreme Rules - Main attraction/stip: All matches contended under Extreme Rules - 182,000 buys
Over the Limit - Main attraction/stip: No stip, Cena/Batista , CM Punk/Rey - 197,000 buys
Fatal-4-Way - Main attraction/stip: 3 Fatal-4-Way matches for 3 titles - 143,000 buys

I think the gimmick PPV's just aren't working/bringing in the buys. Rumble and Mania are pretty much guaranteed to bring in buys, Elimination Chamber got a good buyrate because of the Road to Mania but look at Over the Limit's (not a gimmicked PPV) 197,000 buyrate compared to Extreme Rules and Fatal-4-Way.

Also, the fact that the product is aimed at kids which forces the parent to fork out $35 for TNA/$45 for WWE/ $55 for WWE HD and $60-65 for Mania in HD doesn't help.

DM_7

flahavaj wrote: »

.

i also think Vince isn't too pushed about PPV sales being down btw - his target market, kids, make up for the lack of buys by shifting massive amounts of merch. As long as he's making a packet he doesn't really care what the source of his income is.

That is the answer. PPV buys are down for more than one reason but the biggest factor where WWE are focused on making cash in many ways. PPV buys are only one part of a revenue stream. They could focus on selling more PPVs but that could be at a cost to other parts of the revenue stream.

I imagine Gimmick PPV's will probably lend themselves towards an increase in DVD sales as each PPV is more identifiable.

CMpunked

When I hear: "wwe he'll in a cell ppv will be held next month"
It makes me not want to buy it because I know whatever the main event will be, will be a cell match and maybe they're not at that level, unless the angle is really hot.

On the flipside if two wrestlers have a good story going and they've had matches and no definite winner can be decided, cue a gm, a manager, whatever, comes out and reveals that "NEXT MONTH, you me, HELL IN A CELL!"
that makes me think,
"oh shizz, the poop has hit the fan!"

So I might not be jumping for my sky card, but I will think more about wanting to see the resolution to the story.
And thus, the next few weeks should make me want to see it more and more.

None of that happens anymore and I dunno, maybe it's just me but does anyone else feel that way?

Vince135792003

DM-ICE wrote: »

. They could focus on selling more PPVs but that could be at a cost to other parts of the revenue stream.

.

Personally, I think they don't try for about 9 months of the year and when Wrestlemania season starts it's like a different show with alot more focus in making matches mean something.

The other issue is wrestling isn't very popular. It's not cool in 2010.

UFC did a study that for every 1 ppv order, 7 people watch the show (I can't imagine wrestling having that high of a ratio). UFC has become an event for people to get their friends around every month and have a get together. And the UFC encourage it!

Vince on the other hand rather than embracing it more or less used communal viewing as a reason why ppv numbers were down in the last quarter.

gimmick

Maybe a daft question, but would moving to Saturday help any?

All major UFC shows are Saturday and it aint doing them no harm.

Degag

I went for "Poor Booking and Build up" because that's probably the one most applicable to be but generally it's a combination of most of those options.

First of all, there are too many of them and they are too expensive. The ppv offerings are too often poor in quality and at €22, don't entice people to buy them. Not only us, the majority of whom i'm guessing buy our own ppvs but parents of kids who don't want to pay that kind of money also. I buy Mania and the Rumble and maybe Summerslam but that's it because ppvs are generally no better or worse than a house show. Hell, oftentimes there are better matches on RAW and SD than on the ppv and oftentimes there are 10 second squashes on ppvs. I can spend €22 alot better than watching sh!te on tv at 4am in the morning.

I picked "Poor Booking and Build up" because, as i said, it's the most applicable to me because i think that if the product was good, and i was assured of a good show, i would buy it. But the booking in the WWE is generally terrible at the moment. There are just so many things wrong with it - things that have been discussed on here plenty of times, so i'm not going to elaborate - that it's so often cringeworthy. Nobody really knows that i'm a wrestling fan, because i'd be embarrased to tell them and watching WWE every week emphasises that in some way usually. In fact the only reason i really watch RAW is because there is nothing better on at 2am every Monday night.

Of the other options, the Economy is obviously a factor, although i've no doubt that if the product was good, it wouldn't be such a factor as economic factors don't necessarily mean that people give up all unnecessary expenditure, just the most unnecessary.... lol, all this is making me question why i watch the damn thing at all!

Vince135792003

gimmick wrote: »

Maybe a daft question, but would moving to Saturday help any?

Myabe but it could also make things worse if UFC were running the same night.